Last week I promised to circle back and address the recent actions of the Southern Baptist Convention. I have a treasured history with the Southern Baptist Church. When I was a teenager, my best friend was part of an SBC where we helped to organize a weekly “Coffee House.” It was a very formative time in my life and made a significant impact on our community. Then, when I was in college, I was the Youth Minister at a local SBC, learning from a sincere and good pastor/mentor, and made some wonderful friendships that last until this day. The folks at that church strongly encouraged me to attend a Southern Baptist Seminary, but in the end, I chose to attend a Presbyterian one. More correctly, I feel that God sent me to the Presbyterian one and, wow, am I ever happy! Since the mid 80’s there has been a concerted effort to make the SBC more conservative theologically, politically, and in terms of polity – which is rather contrary to the whole spirit of their original design. It has long been a Baptist distinction that theirs was a “cooperative” church, not a hierarchy where leaders or groups transgressed the conscience of individual churches. The whole tenor of the conservatizing movement within the SBC has alienated many of the more progressive-minded churches and has led to firing seminary professors who disagree with the movement. I know some folks who have been lifelong members of the SBC who simply cannot believe how it has changed.
And so, the movement has now become the majority voice in the SBC and has acted to disfellowship or censure or otherwise punish churches that ordain women to pastoral ministry. That seems like such a 1940’s sort of argument to be having, doesn’t it? And, of course, the warrant for disallowing women to be pastors is I Timothy 2:12-15, “I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.” Boom! Fini! Done with this silly argument, right?
Well, not quite. First, let me say that while I Timothy begins by saying it is a letter from Paul, I deny that strongly. (Don’t take my word for it, please, but do read Marcus Borg’s and John Dominic Crossan’s book The First Paul for some real insight.) Simply put, this is not Paul’s language or perspective toward women. In Romans 5, Paul – the real one – puts the disobedience in Genesis 3 on Adam, not Eve (see vv. 12-14.) Second, in Galatians 3:28, Paul – the real Paul – says, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” For the real Paul, the redemption in Christ has made us one, not owners and slaves, men and women, with different levels of status in Christ. Whoever wrote I Timothy, in the name of Paul - an attempt to further Paul’s message, not necessarily an attempt to deceive – had a very different opinion and perspective. It's a odd thing that two writers – each of whom could be “inspired” in their own way – have two very different perspectives. But it would be another matter entirely if the same person could have such an expansive view of what it means to be “in Christ” in one place and a contrary one in another.
Southern Baptists know the books of Romans and Galatians as well as I Timothy. What they don’t have is the courage to do is to say, “If A does not equal B, then it’s not the same.” Somehow, they’ll make it the same, Doggonit, and so women need to keep quiet! I suspect that by the time I Timothy was written, Paul – the real Paul – was rolling over in his grave.
When the Presbyterian Church (finally) got around to approving the ordination of women, we too struggled with the difference between Paul’s letters to the Romans and Galatians, over and against the letter to Timothy. We chose to adhere to Paul’s original vision of our liberty in Christ, which contradicts societal norms of that time and the norms of the majority voice in the SBC. We did so because the Spirit of God is always reforming us to be the body of Christ in our day. And I think we were right.
So, join me in rejoicing that God has called Jennifer McCullough to be the Associate Pastor of Ark and Dove Presbyterian Church in Odenton, MD. While we will miss them when the McCullough family move to the other coast, we rejoice in the call to pastoral leadership for which Jennifer has so powerfully trained and answered. Thanks be to God!
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